Aiden hits the Primordial like a meteor of silver light.
He's still bleeding.
Still shaking.
Still barely holding himself together.
But none of that matters.
Because I've never seen him move like this.
His wolf form is larger, brighter, every strand of fur burning with moonlit rage. His claws sink into the swirling mass of shadow-starlight that makes up the Primordial's chest.
And for the first time…
The Primordial recoils.
Its twelve eyes widen.
The hum in the void glitches.
The hands holding me falter—just for a second.
"Aiden—!" I gasp.
He digs in deeper.
He's not just biting.
Not just clawing.
He's anchoring himself inside the heart of an ancient nightmare.
"I told you…" he snarls, voice echoing through the void,
"…no one touches her without going through me."
The Primordial's voice rumbles low.
"Wolf… do you understand what you are attacking?"
Aiden bares his bloody fangs.
"I understand you made her cry," he growls.
"That's all I need to know."
The Primordial's laugh is less amused this time.
"Then you will die first."
Its hands tighten.
Two yank Aiden away from its core, tearing his claws out of the glowing mass. Light spills from the wounds he left—blinding white-gold, then red-black.
The Primordial bleeds light.
My heart slams against my ribs.
He actually hurt it.
"Don't stop!" I shout. "Aiden, keep going!"
"Trying—!" he grits out.
Three more hands slam him down, pinning him in the swirling dark.
His fur flickers, his form blurring.
He's losing strength.
"Aiden!" I fight the fingers around my waist, my own power flickering under my skin like a suppressed storm.
The Primordial returns its attention to me.
"He is inconvenient," it muses.
"You cling to him instead of surrendering.
He anchors you where I cannot reach."
"That's the point," I spit.
"He keeps me mine."
Those many eyes narrow.
"Then I remove him."
Every thought in my head goes white.
"NO!" I scream.
I thrash harder, wings flaring, power crackling gold-black along my skin.
But in here, power is slippery.
The void that birthed magic keeps drinking it back, like an ocean trying to reclaim drops of rain.
Aiden pushes up against the hands pinning him.
His chest heaves.
His ribs strain.
Blood drips down his fur.
And still—
he stares right at me.
"Liyana." His voice is simple.
Steady.
"Don't panic."
"I'm already panicking!" I choke. "It's going to kill you—"
He grins—feral, exhausted, stupidly brave.
"Then you've never seen me fight when I really want something."
The Primordial presses harder.
His bones creak.
I hear it.
I feel it through the bond.
Pain lances through my own chest, my ribs spasming like they're being crushed too.
"Stop—stop—PLEASE!" I beg, arms shaking. "Take me—let him go—DON'T TOUCH HIM—"
The Primordial hums.
"You will break for the wolf.
Good.
Breaking you makes you easier to claim."
Something snaps inside me.
Not physically.
Spiritually.
"I am not yours!" I snarl.
Gold-black light explodes from my skin again, stronger than before. For a heartbeat, the void hesitates as my new power flares hard enough to shove the Primordial's fingers back half an inch.
It's not much.
But it's enough.
Aiden sucks in a painful breath as the pressure lessens just a little.
His eyes lock to mine.
"That's it," he rasps. "Fight it. Don't let it decide what you are. Don't let anything decide that but you."
Tears burn my eyes.
"You're one to talk!" I cry. "You're trying to fight a god with just a wolf body and too much attitude—"
"Yeah," he grins weakly. "And you love me for it."
"Unfortunately!"
Despite everything, he laughs—and I feel it in the bond like a spark of warmth in ice.
The Primordial's amusement fades.
"Enough."
Its hands shift.
One clamps around Aiden's throat.
Just like that.
Effortless.
He chokes.
His hind paws scrape uselessly at nothing.
"AIDEN!" My scream scrapes my lungs raw.
His claws grab at the hand squeezing his neck—
but he can't pry it off.
The bond flares red-hot with his panic and lack of air.
"Don't…" he gasps through the crushing grip.
"…cry… Liyana…"
My vision blurs.
Too late.
I already am.
"You're hurting him," I say, voice shaking with fury, eyes burning gold-black. "You're hurting what's mine."
The Primordial tilts its shapeless head.
"He weakens you."
"He makes me STRONG."
"He makes you hesitate."
"He makes me choose."
"He distracts you from your purpose."
"He is my purpose."
The void falls silent.
Every eye focuses on me.
In that moment, I stop shaking.
My power doesn't feel perfect.
It doesn't feel safe.
But it feels like mine.
I stare dead into the heart of the Primordial.
"You want your spark back?" I whisper. "You want the piece of you that got out?"
The hands around me tighten expectantly.
"Yes."
"You want to use me as some weapon? Some key? Some anchor?"
"Yes."
I bare my teeth.
"Then listen very carefully."
Gold-black power flickers hard across my skin, enough to make even this ancient void recoil for half a heartbeat.
"I will never be just a piece of you," I say quietly.
The Primordial's reply is soft.
"You do not get to choose."
"Funny," I whisper. "I've heard that before."
Moon.
Shadow.
Fate.
All of them said the same thing.
And I refused all of them.
Aiden's voice rasps, raw and shredded.
"Moonlight…"
I look at him.
His eyes are still defiant—even as he's dangling by the throat.
He forces out:
"Don't give in… not even… a little bit…"
My heart fractures.
"What if I lose you?"
His lips twitch.
"Then tell the universe… it can go to hell."
The Primordial tightens its grip around his neck, annoyed.
"The wolf will die soon.
His soul will unmake.
You will forget him."
I smile.
It's a horrible, trembling, not-at-all sane smile.
"I won't."
"You cannot hold a mortal memory forever."
"Watch me."
The Primordial studies me in silence.
Then—
Very slowly—
It loosens its grip on my waist…
and moves its hand higher.
Resting over my heart.
Darkness pours through my veins, icy and deep, sifting through my soul like fingers rifling through pages.
"What do you love most about him?"
The question shocks me.
"What—?"
"Your wolf."
The Primordial's voice is almost curious.
"What part of him holds you here?"
He's still struggling for breath, barely holding on.
My throat burns.
"I—"
A thousand memories slam into me.
His hand wiping my tears away.
His smile in the glow of campfires.
His furious, impossible promises to protect me.
His voice calling me Moonlight like it's my true name.
His arms around me in the dark of the Temple.
His lips on mine when we thought it was the last time.
His broken voice saying: I love you.
Everything.
All of it.
I choke.
"All of him," I whisper.
"Choose one."
I stare.
"No."
"Choose one," it repeats.
"Or he dies now."
Aiden jerks.
"Don't—" he rasps. "Don't give it… anything—"
"Aiden—stop talking," I sob. "You're making this worse—"
The Primordial's hand tightens over my heart.
Pain explodes in my chest.
I scream.
Through the agony, it murmurs:
"Choose one… memory… one feeling… and I will bind it.
The rest will fade."
It wants to cut him out of me.
Piece by piece.
Rage floods me.
I grit my teeth.
"You don't get to cut him out of anything."
"You cannot hold onto all of him."
"I can."
"You cannot.
You will break."
"Then I'll break holding him."
The void shudders.
Aiden makes a choked, broken sound.
"Liyana… don't… don't destroy yourself—"
"I already chose you," I tell him, tears streaming. "I'm not un-choosing you now."
The Primordial's voice finally hardens.
"Then we do it my way."
Its fingers push into my chest.
Not physically.
Into the power there.
Into the gold-black swirl.
It grabs something—
And rips.
I scream.
The bond snaps like a whip.
Aiden howls.
For a second—
I feel something being torn out of me.
Not a memory.
Not a thought.
Something else.
Something about him.
Our fall.
Our kiss.
Our laughter.
They all flicker—
then stabilize again.
No.
No, not stabilize.
Change.
Something new settles into my heart—
A glowing mark shaped like a small silver wolf curled around a black-gold star.
The Primordial withdraws its hand.
"…interesting."
I pant, shaking.
"What… did you… do…?"
It answers simply:
"I cannot remove him.
You anchored him too deeply."
Aiden lets out a weak, broken laugh.
"Ha… that's… my girl…"
The Primordial's eyes glow brighter.
"So.
We take a different approach."
The void grows darker.
Its voice drops—colder, sharper.
"If I cannot cut the wolf OUT of you…
I will drag the wolf INTO me."
Every hand in the darkness tightens.
Multiple reach for Aiden at once—
And the chapter ends with:
Aiden being pulled down, away from me,
into the Primordial's core—
while I hang above, screaming his name
as the bond starts to burn.